We follow Sam, a security agent in a shopping mall. On a normal day, a bomb explodes.
Sam tries to save the victims, until something terrible happens. He runs off till he falls down from exhaustion.
A woman’s voice makes him raise his head. She’s one of the victims he saved. She wants to know why the suicide bomber did it. Thereafter he runs into everyone he saved and feels that their defeat shows many parallels with his own. Even the confrontation with the wrongdoer isn’t that straightforward as he thought it would be.
He finds out that guilt and innocence can be pretty much alike.

About the director - Koen Mortier

Koen Mortier directed his first short “Ana Temnei” in 1996. It won amongst several prices also a gold Award at the Worldfest in Houston in 1997. His second short “A hard Days works” will win even more prices (Sabam Price during Int. Brussels Film festival ’97, Audience Award Sarajevo ’97, Price Centaur at St. Petersburg ‘97) and has been selected on more than 30 festivals worldwide.

In 1998 Koen Mortier starts up his own production company “CZAR.BE”, an affiliate company of the Amsterdam-based “CZAR.NL”. Within Czar, he has meanwhile made numerous commercials, both in his name as under the name “Lionel Goldstein” that won several important national and international awards, among the Best Director Award for the British Television Advertising Awards and three Golden Lions in Cannes in both 2002, 2003 and 2005. In 2007 Koen Mortier won the Price for Best Director in The Netherlands with his commercial for “RVS”.

In September 2002, CZAR.BE starts up CCCP, a production company that focuses on feature films and documentaries. Like that he could start with the finance and the production of his first feature film “Ex Drummer”. In February 2006 we started with the recordings of “Ex Drummer”. The film is released in the Benelux in January 2007. “Ex Drummer” was already invited to a lot of film festivals and was sold to different countries. It won also “Best Feature Debute” at the Raindance Filmfestival, the “Public Prize” at the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany, the “Special Prize of the Jury” at the Warsaw Filmfestival and the “Gold Award” at Fantasia Film Festival Montréal.

Koen Mortier just finished “22nd of MAY” and is working on two new feature films: “KILLROY” and “HAUNTED” based on the novel “Haunted” by Chuck Palahniuk.

After receiving its world premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, 22nd of May was shown in competition at both the Ghent International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, where it was part of the special ‘Return of the Tigers’ anniversary programme. The film’s international sales are handled by Paris-based Reel Suspects. According to the HKIFF, 22nd of May tackles its subject matter “with gorgeously bleak handheld visuals, beautiful destruction in slow-mo and painstakingly observed long takes”.

22 May will be screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam in The return of the Tiger Award competition!!
Wednesday 19/01/2011, 15u15